


Edelweiss

by totallyplatonicadultfriends



Category: The X-Files, The X-Files RPF
Genre: Cuddles, F/M, Fluff, Gillovny, sick!fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-04-16 07:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14159886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/totallyplatonicadultfriends/pseuds/totallyplatonicadultfriends
Summary: Gillian visits David in NYC and isn't feeling well.





	Edelweiss

She had tried so hard. She had taken all the Airborne, vitamin C, and immune boosting tea one could possibly stomach, and yet here she is. Finally in New York for an entire week, just her and David, completely alone, no kids, no dogs, no scenes to shoot, and feeling entirely miserable. 

She easily spots his tall frame in the arrivals area, as impossibly beautiful as ever with his tousled hair and aviators, holding a single golden sunflower. He always claimed roses were cliche and trite and she was nothing of the sort. It’s a sight that never fails to make her heart clench in her chest. Twenty five years and her pulse could still put Secretariat to shame. 

David’s face lights up when he sees her, but his beatific smiles falls when she nears. 

“Hey, are you okay?” his brows furrow in concern as he instinctively reaches to pull her into his arms. “You look like shit, babe.”

“Gee thanks, hello to you too,” she jokes lightly; her fever glazed eyes mar her attempt at playfulness. 

“Sorry,” he bends down to kiss her gently. “Hi, you look beautiful, as always, but you look like shit.”

“I’m fine, really,” Gillian lies, raising on tiptoe to wrap her arms around him and bury her face in the crook of his neck. She closes her eyes against a wave of lightheadedness that, for once, has nothing to do his proximity. 

“Jesus, Gill. You’re burning up.”

“Are you sure? Because I’m freezing...”

Gillian shivers in his arms, despite the unseasonably warm weather and the cardigan wrapped around her. She sways unsteadily and David tightens his arms protectively around her. He presses a kiss to the top of her head. 

“C’mon babe, let's get you home and into bed.”

She is nearly asleep in his lap, one hand curled around the flower and the other around his, by the time the Uber fights through the traffic from JFK to his Central Park brownstone. He rouses her gently and wraps one hand around the handle of her suitcase and the other around her waist as he helps her into the apartment building. 

She’s half-asleep in his arms again by the time the elevator reaches his floor. He considers just scooping her up and carrying her, though he’s not sure his knees could take it these days. He keeps his hand in his spot on the small of her back, guiding her gently through the apartment into the bedroom. 

She sits on edge of bed and he slides her impractical wedges of her tiny feet. Her eyes close in fatigued delight when he presses his thumbs into her arches. He turns to the dresser behind him and rummages through the middle drawer in a futile attempt to find a t-shirt. 

David grumbles in displeasure. “I swear my shirts just keep disappearing. I buy more and somehow there’s none here. Where the fuck do they go?!”

“Must be the Laundry Monster,” she teases. 

He finally gives up and settles for just stripping off the one he’s wearing. The ripple of firm muscles across his body would have been irresistibly enticing if not for the feverish haze currently taking residence in her head. 

“I promise it’s clean. Just put it on this morning,” he shoots her an impish grin. “Arms up!”

He slides her sundress over her head and replaces it with his soft grey t-shirt, briefly tenting her in his warmth and scent before her head pops out the other end. 

He drops another quick kiss to her crown before pulling down the covers and easing her back against the pillows. Gillian sighs exhaustedly and her eyes close for just a moment before they snap back open and she struggles to sit up. 

“Wait! I need to call and check on the kids. I haven’t even let them know I made it here.”

David pushes her back gently with a knowing smile. “Relax. I already texted Piper,” he promises, wiggling his phone in her direction to show her the picture on the screen. She’s at the park with Nelson and the boys. They send their love and hope you feel better soon.”

He cups her face and strokes his thumb along her jaw comfortingly, watching the inevitable tailspin of her mind anxiously flipping through her Rolodex of Things That Could Go Wrong. 

“And you’re sure your dog sitter doesn’t mind keeping Brick in Malibu the whole week?”

“Oh not at all. Monique loves Brick. Almost as much as he loves her. Sometimes I think he loves her more than me.” 

He pouts dramatically, his predictable heart skipping a beat at the sound of her giggle. It was forever his favorite sound. He’d do just about anything to hear it. 

“Guess you’ll have to settle for me loving you instead,” she jokes. 

“Hey now,” he admonishes with a grin, tilting her chin gently and pressing his lips to hers. “I am not settling at all.”

Gillian tries to pull back, but he keeps her chin firmly in his grasp. “David, I’m gonna get you sick.”

“Hmm. You’re worth it.” He presses his lips to her forehead this time. “Now. Lie back and relax. Everything is fine. And if it’s not, I’ll be here.”

She spies his guitar resting in the corner and points at it. 

“Are you gonna play for me?”

He’s unable to resist another kiss to her heated forehead as he tucks the blankets tighter around her. “You need to go to sleep. I’ll play for you when you wake up. I promise.”

“Just one,” she wheedles, mirroring his pout from earlier. “I love listening to you sing. Have you learned anything new?”

He sighs. Fuck him. He has zero self control when it came to this woman. He is completely and entirely hers; he can deny her nothing. And she knows it. She might as well just brand his forehead with a cattle prod: Property of Gillian Leigh Anderson. 

“Well...there’s one that’s newish, at least new to me, but it’s not perfect yet and I didn’t want to play it for you until it was...”

“I don’t care. I want to hear it,” her glassy blue eyes widen and her pout deepens. “Please. I love it when you play for me.”

He sighs in defeat; he knows when he’s been bested. 

“Fine. Just one. And then sleep.”

He retrieves the instrument and pulls a chair up next to bed. He places his fingers on the strings and begins to strum the familiar chords. 

Her gasp of delight and light in her eyes confirms his right decision. “Oh David, I love this song!”

He grins shyly at her and ducks his head. “I know. That’s why I learned it.”

_Edelweiss, edelweiss  
Every morning you greet me _

The look on her face is everything. The magnitude of it nearly knocks the wind out of him. Tears prick his eyes and he quickly swallows the lump in his throat. He’d sing forever to have her never stop looking at him like that. Like he’s the sun around which her entire world revolves. 

_Small and white_  
_Clean and bright_  
_You look happy to meet me_

Gillian nestles deeper into the pillows, her heavy eyelids slowly winning the fight against her adoring gaze as he continues to sing. 

_Blossom of snow may you bloom and grow_  
_Bloom and grow forever_  
_Edelweiss, edelweiss_  
_Bless my homeland forever_

David strums the final chord and his voice slowly fades. He watches her breathe peacefully for a moment before placing a final soft kiss on her forehead again and turning to quietly leave. 

“You’re not leaving, are you?” she asks suddenly, grasping after his hand, her eyes flying open again like someone startling awake from a dream. 

“Gill...”

“Please don’t go,” she pleads, desperate to just keep him close to her. “Stay.” 

The tug of her tiny hand on his is all it takes for him to relent. He climbs in next to her and pulls her against his chest, her hot forehead resting in the hollow of his shoulder. 

She gives a sighed murmur of contentment, “Mmm, you’re warm.”

He tightens his arms around her, one hand circling soothingly on her back, the other combing gently through her hair. 

“Sing it again,” she whispers, slowed by the slur of sleep. 

By this point, he knows better than to argue. She finally drifts off, lulled to sleep in his arms by his quiet crooning and the sound of the heart that beats only for her.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Tumblr [@totallyplatonicadultfriends](http://www.totallyplatonicadultfriends.tumblr.com)


End file.
